Abballa enters the man’s home, taking his partner, herself a policewoman, and their young son hostage

20:52 – Abballa claims the attack in a live Facebook post

21:30 – elite anti-terror police arrive at the house and a siege starts

About midnight – police assault after Abballa threatened to blow the place up.

When police stormed in they killed Abballa and found the dead woman, who had been stabbed. The little boy was in a state of shock.

French media are naming them as Jean-Baptiste Salvaing, 42, and Jessica Schneider, 36.

French Prime Minister Manuel Valls called the attack “a watershed in terms of horror – the home, the intimate life of a family, of a couple of civil servants, was targeted”.

In 2013, Abballa was jailed for recruiting fighters for jihad in Pakistan.

He had been under recent police surveillance, including a wiretap. Three people linked to Abballa have been arrested and placed in custody.

In the video – later removed from Facebook – Abballa considers what to do with the couple’s son, according to French jihad expert David Thomson, who watched it.

Image copyrightTwitter

Image caption
According to David Thomson, at one point during the Facebook Live video: “The baby is behind him, on the sofa. After killing his parents he says: ‘I don’t know yet what I’m going to do with him'”

“I don’t know yet what I’m going to do with him,” the killer is heard saying.

He also made a threatening reference to the Euro 2016 football tournament.

Media captionPresident Hollande: “Unquestionably a terrorist act”

Image copyrightAFP

Image caption
Officers of an elite police unit stormed the house in Magnanville

France has been under a state of emergency since the Paris attacks of 13 November 2015 in which IS jihadists killed 130 people.

That state of emergency is still in place. France is on high alert as it hosts the Euro tournament, which started last Friday.